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Marathon champion ‘wanted to win it for Boston’

Marathon champion ‘wanted to win it for Boston’

American Meb Keflezighi wins the 118th Boston Marathon, a year after deadly bombings, near the Marathon finish line in Boston, Monday. Keflezighi is the first American male to win since 1983. (Patrick Raycraft/Hartford Courant/MCT)

Marathon champion ‘wanted to win it for Boston’

Rita Jeptoo of Kenya didn't seem to have broken a sweat following her victory in the 118th Boston Marathon in Boston, MondaY. (Patrick Raycraft/Hartford Courant/MCT)

By LAUREL J. SWEETBoston Herald

American Meb Keflezighi won the men’s title in the Boston Marathon today, kissing the ground and weeping after he crossed the finish line to the roar of the joyous crowd.

It’s the first time an American has won the race since 1983, when Greg Meyer captured the laurel wreath. Keflezighi, from San Diego, finished in an unofficial 2:08:36 as crowds along Boylston Street chanted “USA! USA!”

Keflezighi wrapped himself in the American flag as he accepted his trophy.

He said he had to look over his shoulder today as other runners were closing in, but he held off the competition to bring the win back home to the U.S. one year after the bombings.

“I wanted to win it for Boston … win it for the people,” he said after the finish. “The last three to four miles, (the crowd) pushed me through it. I’m so lucky to be the champion.

“It’s not about me,” he continued. “It’s Boston Strong. Meb Strong.”

The 38-year-old elite runner said he had vowed to win the race after the Red Sox won the World Series last fall and the trophy was brought to the Boylston Street finish line by outfielder Jonny Gomes.

“God bless America,” he said at the finish line. He also wrote the names of last year’s victims on the corners of his race bib.

Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo won the women’s race in record time earlier defending her title from last year. She broke the tape in an unofficial 2:18:57.

Shortly before 11, America Tatyana McFadden won the women’s wheelchair race on her 29th birthday.

They were among a record number of athletes racing — including wheelchair competitor Ernst Van Dyk who claimed his 10th title — under a crystalline sky and unprecedented security precautions.

“We’re comfortable,” said state police Colonel Timothy Alben. “We think we’ve got the bases covered here today. We’re very confident about the safety. It’s going to be a great day.”

Along the course, 1 million spectators are cheering on racers, Boston Athletic Association officials said. The crowds grew so vast near the finish line around 1 p.m. that cops started sealing off some of the blocks on Boylston Street to new spectators.

“There are just too many people,” one officer told the Herald.

Earlier today, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said law enforcement has received no new intelligence on threats this morning.

“The security is great today in Boston,” he said in an interview on City Hall Plaza. “We certainly have a great plan put in place for the marathon route. People will have a great experience today. They will see police out there and there will be other police people won’t see today.”

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson reported no “specific, credible threats” to the race. He stopped in at the MEMA bunker in Framingham where about 260 state and federal security personnel are set up to monitor the race. Johnson, it was announced over the loud speakers, also stopped at the finish line.

“There are no specific, credible threats to this event. We do continually evaluate information that comes in and we’re able to delineate, to put aside things that we deem not credible, that are too vague in nature, and all of us at the federal, state and local level are vigilant in sorting through that type of information,” Johnson said.

The start line in Hopkinton was flanked by hundreds of local, state and military police.

Event staff, which included both retired U.S. Marshals and Secret Service agents, tell the Herald this is the first time in the marathon’s history that public access to Hopkinton Common has been restricted by a maze-like series of white metal gates that keep spectators walled off from the runners and the starting line.

Streets in and out of this town of less than 15,000 residents closed at 7 a.m., nearly two hours before the start of the 26.2-mile race — a feat of endurance this year not just for the record field of 36,000 runners and the law enforcement committed to protect them, but the survivors of last year’s deadly terrorist attack at the finish line in Copley Square.

The first race participants — the mobility impaired, hand cycle and wheelchair racers — arrived just before 7:30 at the starting line in vans escorted by dozens of state police motorcycle officers, and began racing at 8:50 a.m., less than two hours before Van Dyk claimed his victory. The elite women racers started running at 9:32, led by Marblehead’s own Shalane Flanagan, and the elite men started at 10. (Flanagan finished seventh among the women.) Tens of thousands of others started running in waves that began at 10:25.

Gov. Deval Patrick officially kicked off the marathon by counting down the start for the mobile-impaired athletes.

“We’re back,” Patrick, wearing a Red Sox cap bearing the Boston Strong slogan, told reporters after the race began. “This will be the biggest block party we have and I think a really happy one.” He said organizers and police are prepared for today’s massive race, as the eyes of the world turn to Boston.

“We have prepared. We have done, I think, just about everything possible that can be done to be prepared to strike that balance … between having adequate security, and indeed stepped-up security, but keeping the family feel of the day,” Patrick said. “And I think we’ve struck that balance.”

The day is full of emotions, Patrick said, recalling a conversation he had this morning with a woman who was injured by the blasts as she cheered on the runners as a spectator last year.

“She was herself hurt,” Patrick said. “She wanted to run today to acknowledge her own healing. And just before we set off the runners, she burst into tears. And I think there are going to be a lot of experiences and emotions like that today.”

Among the marathoners this year is Thomas Feller, 35 of Sterling, who is running in his second Boston Marathon in a full “Patriot’s Day” costume made of wool and tweed.

Last year, he was cheering runners on near the finish line when the explosions occurred.

He said today that he’ll carry two mini American Flags while he runs “to show my respect for the victims.”

Runner Karen Blagg, 41 of Westford, said she finished last year’s marathon five minutes before the finish-line explosions. She was in the medical tent because she “was hurting” after the grueling race, and had just been congratulated by her husband and three children when chaos ensued.

This year, she said, the run is special.

“It’s not about me, it’s about all these people who were hurt last year,” Blagg said. “To see all these people come out today … It’s empowering. We’re going to take back the day and not let those horrible people determine the decisions we make.”

Along the racecourse, joy trumped worry.

Heartbreak Hill — the most brutal stretch of the Boston Marathon — had a party vibe as spectators bopped to music, some in costumes or holding signs that read “your pace or mine” and “those shorts make your butt look fast.”

At Mile 21, which features a Lululemon cheer station, local DJ Costa and Boston rock band Skinny Cleveland soundtracked the race from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. A few bopped to the beat in tutus; everyone cheered.

“After a year of recovery, today feels great,” said Skinny Cleveland lead singer Jamie Simon. “And it feels safe. I mean, there are Blackhawk helicopters flying around.”

Dozens of runners pumped their fists or egged on the crowd for more volume.

But the sense of last year’s tragedy was never far. A group from MIT cheered on 39 students, faculty and staff from the school running for the Sean Collier fund. When asked what it meant to have such a big group run for the slain MIT officer, employee Lauren Hanley tried to respond and then choked up.

“It’s great,” she said. “Just great.”

John Ochsendorf is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, and he was standing yesterday in Wellesley Square with his wife, Anne Carney, wearing a “Collier Strong” T-shirt, honoring the life of fallen MIT police officer Sean Collier. “We live on the MIT campus and had met Sean before,” said Ochsendorf.

The husband and wife were wearing their Ts to support the nine runners on the MIT Strong team.

“We go every year, but this year is really special. We’re creating new memories,” he said.

On the Wellesley College campus, students set up there traditional “kissing gauntlet’ for runners.

One, Wellesley College senior Valerie Ludorf of Hopkinton, held a sign at the 20K marker: “Last year we were put to the test …now we are braver than the rest.”

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